ICICIdirect has maintained a neutral stance on cement sector and said, "All-India cement demand is expected to grow by 4.5 per cent in FY12E against 4.4 per cent in FY11 and 10.2 per cent in FY10. Cement demand has been subdued during the year and grew by 3.9 per cent YoY in April-September 2011 as the consumption from the housing and infrastructure segments remained sluggish on account of key issues like rising cost of capital, land acquisition & clearances and unavailability of key raw materials like coal to the manufacturing industry. For the remaining year (October-March 2011), we expect demand to grow by 5.1 per cent YoY as demand is expected to pick up post monsoon."The capacity utilization rate is expected to decline further to 75 per cent in FY12E from 77 per cent in FY11 and 87 per cent in FY10. This is on account of 18 MT additions in effective capacity as against incremental demand of 10 MT during the period," it added.Following are the other key highlights of cement sector performance in October:Cement majors report aggregate dispatch growth of 0.4 per cent YoY, 17 per cent MoM:In October 2011, the dispatches of major cement players remained dull and they reported an aggregate dispatch growth of 0.4 per cent YoY. Jaypee outperformed other players with 13 per cent YoY growth in dispatches. ACC and Ambuja reported growth of 2.6 per cent YoY and 1.7 per cent YoY, respectively, while UltraTech reported a 6.8 per cent YoY decline in dispatches. Mangalam Cement reported 5.6 per cent YoY growth. Shree Cement, JK Lakshmi and Heidelberg reported flat growth in dispatches.On an MoM basis, the aggregate dispatch growth was robust with 17 per cent as the demand picked up after the end of the monsoon season. Jaypee, Shree and Mangalam reported 22 per cent, 37 per cent and 31 per cent growth in dispatches, respectively. UltraTech, ACC and Ambuja Cement reported 13-15 per cent MoM growth in dispatches.